Enterprise Dashboards

ENTERPRISE DASHBOARDS

DESIGN AND BEST PRACTICES FOR IT

SHADAN MALIK

John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

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ENTERPRISE DASHBOARDS

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ENTERPRISE DASHBOARDS

DESIGN AND BEST PRACTICES FOR IT

SHADAN MALIK

John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

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This book is printed on acid-free paper. ∞

Copyright © 2005 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.

Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey.

Published simultaneously in Canada.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form

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Wiley also publishes its books in a variety of electronic formats. Some content that appears in print

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All product names, software names, web site names, company names and marks that appear through￾out the book belong to the respective owners, and are protected by U.S. and international copyright

and trademark laws. Any mention of commercial products within the book is for information only;

it does not imply recommendation or endorsement by the authors or publisher.

All the illustrations and dashboard examples throughout the book are based on fictitious data, and do

not reflect any organization’s real performance, past or present.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Malik, Shadan.

Enterprise dashboards : design and best practices for IT / Shadan Malik.

p. cm.

Includes index.

ISBN-13 978-0-471-73806-0 (cloth)

ISBN-10 0-471-73806-9 (cloth)

1. Dashboards (Management information systems) I. Title.

HD30.213.M34 2005

658.4′038′011—dc22

2005007458

Printed in the United States of America

10987654321

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To Aleena, Shifa, and My Mother

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Preface ix

Acknowledgments xv

About the Contributors xvii

PART ONE Dashboard Execution 1

1 Business Case for Enterprise Dashboards 3

2 Dashboarding Process: The Meta-Information 15

3 The Audience 35

4 Presentation: Design, Layout, and Navigation 45

5 Dashboard Alerts 59

6 Storyboarding 69

7 Project Planning and Branding 87

PART TWO Dashboard Types 95

8 Dashboard Categories 97

9 Divisional Dashboards 113

CONTENTS

vii

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PART THREE Dashboard Software Assessment 145

10 Software Features 147

11 Software Acquisition and ROI 165

PART FOUR Case Studies 175

12 DaimlerChrysler Sales and Marketing Dashboard 177

13 ING DIRECT Executive Dashboard 187

14 Dashboard in Health Care (Emergency Medical Associates) 197

Index 209

viii CONTENTS

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PREFACE

ix

The term dashboard brings to mind that panel under the windshield of a

vehicle that contains indicator dials, various compartments, and control

instruments. Its beauty lies in its functionality. It brings together all of the

relevant data and functions within easy accessibility to the driver. It allows

us to monitor important, even lifesaving data while performing the vital

day-to-day task of driving. In addition, it provides an ease of use and com￾fort so as to make the multitude of decisions necessary during the driving

task almost automatic, and certainly effortless.

For corporate decision makers, the amount of data that must be monitored

and analyzed on a given business day is anything but effortless. Hunting

through spreadsheets, calling in elite information specialists, and experi￾encing costly delays in the synthesis process—managing information is

becoming more complicated by the day. Certainly, the time has come for a

new vision of the dashboard that will meet the needs of today’s business

professionals.

The term dashboard has acquired a vibrant new meaning in the field of

information management as leading organizations worldwide embrace the

idea of empowerment through improved real-time information systems. In

the current corporate vocabulary, a dashboard is a rich computer interface

with charts, reports, visual indicators, and alert mechanisms that are consol￾idated into a dynamic and relevant information platform.

Information management is a field in our new information-saturated and

fast-moving business culture. Corporate America is currently abuzz with

talk about enterprise performance management, balanced scorecards, busi￾ness activity monitoring, and regulatory compliance. The most exciting new

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x PREFACE

development in these discussions is arguably how enterprise dashboards

can serve as live consoles to manage such business initiatives. Currently,

some good books and journal papers outline the concepts and value behind

various new information management initiatives, but few resources are

available that fully explore the issue of dashboard implementation. The only

available insight into the world of dashboards at this time is confined to the

manuals of the software, which facilitate dashboard implementation or spe￾cialize in specific solutions with a dashboard interface. As of the writing of

this book, I have found no book on the subject of enterprise dashboards. This

book will shed light on the neglected subject of dashboard implementation,

one that I have had the opportunity to explore, practice, and preach over the

past few years.

The goal of this book is threefold:

1. To serve as a reference and best practices guide to business leaders

considering dashboards for their information needs. C-level execu￾tives, VPs, directors, and department heads will find herein the ammu￾nition they need to differentiate among the good, bad, and ugly of

dashboarding. This book will help with due diligence for enterprise

dashboarding strategy, implementation directives, and vendor selec￾tion, and will help demystify the emerging topic of dashboards.

2. To serve as an implementation handbook for IT managers, analysts,

and consultants delegated with the task of implementing dashboards.

This book provides a step-by-step implementation framework that has

been tested and proven. The dashboard execution steps, storyboarding,

project milestones, dashboard types, and case studies are derived from

real-life implementations.

3. To shed light on the popular topic of dashboards for teachers and stu￾dents of information systems and management. The term dashboard

conjures an obvious image of charts and reports put together on a com￾puter screen. Only a few minutes are required to get the basic point

across. However, many variables make dashboard part science and

part art. Hopefully, this book will provide enough theoretical and real￾world information to prepare future information management profes￾sionals to skillfully juggle the issues involved in creating effective

dashboard implementations.

The book is divided into four parts: (1) dashboard execution, (2) dash￾board types, (3) dashboard software assessment, and (4) case studies.

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Part One: Chapters 1 to 7 provide a framework to help readers understand

the key elements of enterprise dashboards and what is involved in a dash￾board implementation.

• Chapter 1 discusses the significance of dashboards in the greater con￾text of trends in information delivery.

• Chapters 2 to 5 provide the implementation framework involving infor￾mation collection, dashboard audience assessment, layout and design,

and dashboard alerts.

• Chapters 6 and 7 describe the process of storyboarding and project

planning with the right team composition.

Part Two: Chapters 8 and 9 provide examples for different dashboard

types and implementation scenarios for various applications.

• Chapter 8 focuses on the major dashboard categories, such as the enter￾prise performance dashboards, activity monitoring dashboards, and cus￾tomer and vendor dashboards.

• Chapter 9 focuses on divisional dashboards, such as the sales, market￾ing, finance, human resources, supply chain, and so forth.

Part Three: Chapters 10 and 11 provide a framework to evaluate software

features and return on investment (ROI) determination.

Part Four: Chapters 12 to 14 provide real-world case studies for differ￾ent types of dashboard implementations. Business managers in various

organizations who have pioneered dashboard deployment in their respective

business areas have contributed to these chapters to share real-world issues

in dashboard implementation.

I have also borrowed notable quotes from the leaders in the information

industry as well as a few of the recent management best sellers. This will

help readers draw parallels between the dashboarding trend and contempo￾rary thought from the leadership in information management.

PREFACE xi

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xii PREFACE

MY BRIEF BACKGROUND

As an old-time student in the area of information management and its effect

on management decisions, conceiving ways to provide improved informa￾tion for decision making has always challenged me. Early in my career, after

my graduate studies, I focused on data analysis, large-volume data process￾ing, data quality, and data matching heuristics. All of these efforts are geared

toward the same outcome—better information for business decision making.

This quest naturally led me to the end of the tunnel, exploring information

delivery to end users. Having arrived at that point, I encountered dash￾boards, only to discover how poor the presentation tools were for informa￾tion delivery. I concluded that decision makers are data rich but information

poor. The power of data analysis and number crunching has greatly

advanced since then, but the average business user is inundated with data

while seeking information, the proverbial needle in the haystack.

During the past few years, I have tirelessly sought to improve data visu￾alization in order to help the average business user access the right informa￾tion quickly and easily. I have championed the cause of contextual

visualization, which has led to several patent-pending ideas and the devel￾opment of two new product lines: iDashboards and iViz. Because dash￾boards fall within the space of business intelligence (BI), my quest remains

to extend BI with enhanced visualization for dashboards that may be termed

as Visual Intelligence.

WHO IS IMPLEMENTING

ENTERPRISE DASHBOARDS?

We all want to learn from the successes and failures of others. Frequently, I

am asked, “Can you provide us with references of those who have imple￾mented dashboards to address similar problems?”

During the past 12 months alone, I have had the opportunity to discuss

dashboard initiatives with more than 100 organizations, ranging from For￾tune 100 corporations to organizations employing 100 people. Although I’m

not at liberty to divulge any names, here’s a profile of some of those organ￾izations:

• Fortune 100 automobile manufacturer

• Fortune 100 aerospace company

• Fortune 500 technology hardware and service provider

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